WSOP 2008
So Long, Farewell
by Jessica on 07.16.08, 1:10 am
With 54 events in the books and the final table set, our summer here at the Rio has come to an end. Along the way numerous Pocket Fivers found themselves in the money, at final tables, and winning bracelets and we send our warmest congratulations to everyone. In the end, Pocket Fivers racked up approximately $20 million in cashes and took down several bracelets in the process.
It remains to be seen how much Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery will add to this tally with his Main Event finish. Montgomery and the eight other players at the final table will return on November 9th to play down to two players. On November 10th the final two will return for heads-up play and the event will air on November 11th on ESPN.
Here are the official chip counts of the November Nine:
Dennis Phillips - 26,295,000
Ivan Demidov - 24,400,000
Scott Montgomery - 19,690,000
Peter Eastgate - 18,375,000
Ylon Schwartz - 12,525,000
Darus Suharto - 12,520,000
David Rheem - 10,230,000
Craig Marquis - 10,210,000
Kelly Kim - 2,620,000
Pocket Fiver, Scott Montgomery, will be coming into the event 3rd in chips. Montgomery is no stranger to high profile final tables. He placed 5th in last year’s LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino at a loaded final table featuring the event’s winner Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, and Nam Le.
Another online pro to watch out for at this final table is Craig Marquis, known to many online as CMarq. A high stakes online cash game player, Marquis’ railbirds as they played down to the final table included Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Brian “snagglepuss” Powell.
Arguably the most well-known player at the final table is David “Chino” Rheem. This will be his third WSOP final table. Rheem took 2nd in a No Limit Hold Em event at the 2006 WSOP and also finished 5th in the $5K Mixed Limit Hold Em event earlier this summer.
As we have said before, it has been our pleasure reporting for Pocket Fives this summer. We hope you have enjoyed reading as much as we have enjoyed writing. Don’t forget to watch the final table coverage of several P5ers beginning July 22nd (next Tuesday) at 8pm. The first event they will be broadcasting is the $10K World Championship of Pot Limit Hold Em featuring our own Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers and Amit “amak316″ Makhija. Coverage will continue on ESPN weekly through November 11th.
Sweet and Sowers
by Jessica on 07.03.08, 9:17 pm
The buzz around the Amazon Room as players returned from break was how many chips Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers (pictured at left). The televisions broadcasting the leaderboard showed Sowers as having a whopping 270K at the end of the 2nd break. Were it true, that would mean Mike had increased his starting stack more than tenfold in a mere four hours. While we can neither confirm nor deny the 270K mark, when we last caught up with Mike Sowers he had around 13K in chips.
That is, until he got tangled up in a hand during the 150/300 blind level where a player limped in middle position, the small blind completed, and Sowers raised to 1,500 total out of the big blind. The limper then reraised to 3K total, the small blind folded, and Mike quickly reraised all-in. The other player called instantly and Sowers appeared to know what the other player had before his opponent turned over his hand.
“Aces, huh?”
Sowers waited for his opponent to reveal his A
A
before he turned up his KK
. The board ran out 822
8Q and the large pot was pushed to the other player. Thankfully for Sowers, he had his opponent covered and he was left with 6K at the conclusion of the hand.
It didn’t take long for Sowers to work his chip stack back up when he and another player got it all in on a flop of 10-10-3 with Sowers holding 10-8 to another player’s 8-8. The turn was a Q and the river a 3 giving Mike a full house and the pot. He is now back where we found him at 13K.
While his magical friend Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail was eliminated this level, Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle (pictured at right) continues to increase what was already a healthy 45k stack heading heading back from the break. Hinkle recently won a huge hand that increased his stack to 80k in the 150-300 level. Hinkle raised to 800 utg and got two callers. Hinkle checked the A5J flop and his opponent bet 2k and the third player called before it got back to Hinkle, who check-raised to 8k and both players called. Hinkle bet 22k on the T turn and the flop bettor folded and last player to act went all-in for his last 11k. Hinkle table JJ for a set leading his opponents JT for two-pair and a flush draw. The river brought the Q and Hinkle scooped a huge pot that seemed like an Omaha hand given the extreme strength of the players’ holdings in relation to the board.
Here are our most recent unofficial chip counts:
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 36.5K
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 26.5K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 24K
Billy Westom - 19K
Mike “michnak” Michnik - 19K
Shannon Shorr - 18K
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slivka - 16K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 15K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 14.5K
Dan “wretchy” Martin - 12K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 11K
Joe “Dyzalot” Morneau - 11K
Eric Liu - 10.5K
Faraz “The Toliet-0″ Jaka - 9K
Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet - 6K
Eric “E-Fro” Froehlich - 5K
Zac “iLLNuGWichee” Fronterhouse - 3K
Recent eliminations include Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn, Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail, Justin “jurollo” Rollo, and Kevin “WiCane” Pionkowski.
Pocket Fives No Good to Graham
by Jessica on 06.25.08, 9:12 pm
All of the remaining 420 players for the $1K No Limit Hold Em with rebuys have been condensed into the same section, which is resulting in several loaded tables. Shortly after Scott “gunning4you” Seiver busted, his seat was filled by Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich. Rich has Adam “Roothlus” Levy to his right and Adam has Scott “BigRiskky” Clements on his right, creating a murderer’s row of skilled players. Several other tables feature a combination of prominent players. Brock “t_soprano” Parker and Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson have been seated at the same table all day. Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman and Chris “moorman1″ Moorman are seated together, as are Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers, Adam “akat11″ Katz, and Ben “bfineman” Fineman. Jeff “yellowsub” Williams and Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach are passing the time at their table discussing the merits of Cake Poker.
One player who has been moved to about six different tables today is Matt “mattg1983″ Graham (pictured at left). After he was seated at his most recent table, he got involved in the following hand, which resulted in a noticable hit to his chip stack:
On a flop of KQ5 Matt bet out 850 and one other player made the call. After the 4 peeled off on the turn, his opponent checked, Matt bet out 1,625, and his opponent didn’t think too long before making the call. When the 2 hit on the river the other player led out for 3.5K and Matt announced “I just call.” The player showed QJ for the rivered flush and Matt flashed his set of fives before tossing them in the muck. He still had 15K as Level 5 was winding down.
Amit “amak316″ Makhija also took a hit to his stack when his opponent bet out 1.1K on a flop of 633 and Amit check-raised to 3K total. The other player made the call and they both saw the turn–J. Amit led out for 5.3K and his opponent called. Once the T came on the river, Amit elected to check and his opponent checked behind. Makhija held A-5 while his opponent had A-6 for two pair. He was left with 25K after the hand.
As the field has been cut in half, several players have been eliminated including Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaughbaugh and Eric “p3achy_keen” Liu.
Here are our most recent unofficial chip counts:
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (pictured at right) - 42K
Jon “sketchy1″ Eaton - 22K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 20K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 18.5K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 15K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 14K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 13K
Isaac Haxton - 12K
Chris “moorman1″ Moorman - 11K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 9K
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado - 8.5K
Jason Gray - 8K
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista - 7K
Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn - 4K
One of everyone’s favorite events, the $50K Horse is underway with over 120 players vying to take home the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy in addition to the bracelet. It was announced at the beginning of the event that the trophy will travel around from winner to winner, similar to the way the Stanley Cup does. Some of the players we spotted in the field include Justin Bonomo, James “mig.com” Mackey, and Dario Minieri.
In the Brasilia Room, the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event is down to its final 26 players. Stewart “StuMan123″ Yancik was eliminated in 52nd place for $3,341 and Tom “SBRounder” West took 41st for $3,636. Shannon Shorr and Dan “Stainley88″ Adams are still alive but both working with short stacks.
Beckman Gets Bluffed
by Crystal on 06.23.08, 1:20 am
As the seconds on the tournment clocked ticked down the last few seconds of level 16 in the $1.5k NLHE tournament, chip leader Garrett ”GBecks” Beckman got involved in a rather interesting hand.
The cards were dealt out and as the other players folded they left the table to go on break but Beckman (pictured right) in the cutoff raised to 24k. Play folded to the big blind, a man named Curtis Early, who decided to make the call. The flop came Q52 and Early bet out 14k. Beckman raised to 64k and then Early re-raised to 114k. Beckman went into the tank and said “Top pair, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” After debating for awhile Beckman eventually folded and left the table to go to break.
Early then told PocketFives that all he had was 92 for a pair of twos. He said, “I just felt like playin’ with him! He’s been pushing everybody around.” Early suspected that his twos weren’t good against Beckman’s hand but that he just wanted to play back at him because he could. Even though Beckman lost over 100k in chips in the hand he is still near the top of the chip counts and will be fighting to build his stack even higher as they get closer to the final table.
David “ComptonMasta” Barter was eliminated after having a big stack for the majority of the day. After being crippled on one hand by another big stack he put the rest of his chips in with the K5 and couldn’t catch up to his opponents AJ.
There are currently 41 players remaining including Chris “big huni” Hunichen (340k), Luke “JohnnyCashOut” Priour (52k), and Michael “inissint” Glasser (195k).
Over in the Amazon Room, 271 of the original 731 players are still going strong in the $1,500 Mixed Hold’em event. The players have just returned from a 30-minute dinner break and were told that they would be playing four more hours before the conclusion of Day 1. Stu “thedonator” Paterson (12K), Mike SowersUNCC” Sowers (10K), Tony “Bond18″ Dunst (9.5K) and Brock “t_soprano” Parker (6K) are some of the notables alive as the average stack is now 8K.
Shannon Shorr and Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg were among those eliminated in the past level. We caught Shorr (pictured left) and David Plastik get all of their chips in on a KT68 board, with Shorr holding KQ and a 2-1 favorite against the 75 of Plastik. The river, however, brought the 9, giving Plastic a straight and sending Shorr packing.
You Have to Win a Race
by Crystal on 06.23.08, 12:14 am
Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker’s chip stack had been slowly dwinding in the $1.5k NLHE tournament until he decided to put it all in with pocket sixes. A player sitting across from him made the call with his AK and when the flop came with a king Bowker fell behind in the hand and was unable to catch back up. Even though the shirt Kyle (pictured left) is wearing today says “Nice Hand Sir. And by hand I mean catch and by sir I mean moron” he graciously accepted the loss and was consoled by a friend who said “What can you do? You have to win a race. Good game man” as Kyle headed to the cashier to collect his winnings.
Another player got all his chips in needing some serious help to stay alive. David “DavidP18″ Peters and a shorter stack both got all their chips in against another player who had them both covered.
Peters: A9
Short stack: 33
Other player: AA
Peters and the other short stack were both in serious trouble against the aces and when the board ran out Q2287 they were both sent to the rail.
Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers and Stu “thedonator” Paterson have been early movers in today’s $1,500 Mixed Hold’em event. Sowers has just increased his chip count to over 8K by crippling Bryan Micon in Limit Hold’em. Sowers (pictured right) raised from middle position and Micon called from the big blind. On the flop of Q84, Micon check-raised Sowers and Sowers made the call. The turn was the Q and Micon bet and Sowers called. The 9 fell on the river and again Sowers called a bet from Micon, who showed A8 but was rivered by the A9 of Sowers. Micon was eliminated shortly after.
Paterson showed why he’s considered one of the online greats at the other end of the room during No-limit. In a three-way pot, Paterson and another player checked a A53 flop to the original preflop raiser, who bet 1K and both players called. The 3 came on the turn and again it was checked over the the raiser, who bet 1500 and only Paterson called. The river was the 7 and Paterson quickly check-called a bet of 3K and showed TT, which beat KQ. Paterson is among the chip leaders with 15K.